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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26953663">Just Friends</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/nazyalenskyism/pseuds/nazyalenskyism'>nazyalenskyism</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Grishaverse Collection [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Nikolai Series - Leigh Bardugo, The Grisha Trilogy - Leigh Bardugo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Avoiding Feelings, F/M, can you believe these idiots, they were just friends.... right?, zoyalai, zoyalai au, zoyalai being zoyalai</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 18:36:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,451</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26953663</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/nazyalenskyism/pseuds/nazyalenskyism</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Nikolai and Zoya are just friends... aren't they?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Nikolai Lantsov &amp; Zoya Nazyalensky, Nikolai Lantsov/Zoya Nazyalensky</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Grishaverse Collection [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1959739</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>33</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Just Friends</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Zoya and Nikolai live in my mind, rent free at this point. Feedback is appreciated, and my tumblr is myruthlesszoya.tumblr.com if you ever want to talk or send prompts or anything!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Hurry up! If you’re not here in,” she checked her watch, “four minutes, these freshmen are going to take your room.”</p><p>“Zoya, I’m almost there, just stall them!”</p><p>“How the hell am I supposed to--” he’d already hung up on her. Fantastic. She knew she should’ve booked the study room under her name, Nikolai was too eager of a student, he’d probably stayed behind to talk to his Professor about his favourite books concerning the lecture material. Nikolai may have been the one to curry favour and win hearts but at least she excelled at something he could never manage to master, being punctual. Squaring her shoulders she stepped towards the first years who were crowded around the door, probably counting down the seconds before the ten minute grace period was over so that they could snatch the room up for themselves. Not on her watch. </p><p>“Hey!” She snapped, her most imperious armor clicking into place. “What do you think you’re doing?” Zoya had long ago learned that people would believe what you had to say as long as you acted so confident in your convictions that you left no room for them to doubt you. </p><p>They all looked up at her, their mouths hanging open. Finally one of them mustered enough courage to spit out, “we’re waiting for the room to open up.” </p><p>	“You’re Nikolai Lantsov?” Zoya drawled, letting her eyes sweep them from head to toe. They shrunk under her gaze, only one of them dared to respond. </p><p>            “No but if he doesn’t show up in 2 minutes then we get his room.”</p><p>            “Wait, we’re waiting for his room? I wanted to get a picture of him.” </p><p>         This was new, so now they were treating Nikolai like he was a celebrity. “Well, you’re not getting his room, so get lost. And he doesn’t ‘take photos’ with anyone, his ego isn’t that inflated.”</p><p>            “That’s where you’re wrong Nazyalensky, my ego is indeed quite that big.” With his wind tousled hair and suit, he definitely looked like a celebrity, and it was clear that the other students thought so as well. </p><p>              “Unfortunately, she’s right about the pictures, sorry to disappoint.” He winked over his shoulder, swiping his ID and opening the door for Zoya. She entered as he said “if you’re looking to take pictures. I heard that Genya Safin is never opposed to that flattery.” He slid into the room firmly shutting the door while the students stood open mouthed. “You’re positively glowing Zoya, how was your presentation?”</p><p>“I’ve found that putting children in their place does that for my complexion. It was perfect, as always, yours?”</p><p>“Perfect as always,” he grinned at her. Leaning back in his chair, he loosened his tie with one hand, while opening his laptop with the other. “So, Nazyalensky, I was thinking…”</p><p>“You do that?”</p><p>“Yes, and I do it better than most. But that’s how I do everything Zoya, you should know that by now. I was thinking that since we’re already dressed up, what if we get dinner at that fancy restaurant on the waterfront?”</p><p>Zoya’s head shot up, she’d been wanting to go there for months, but all her friends had wanted to go with their significant others, and you had to reserve a spot weeks ahead of time.</p><p>“We can’t, we don’t have a reservation.”</p><p>“Yes we do.”</p><p>“Nikolai, you just brought up these plans, even if you’d been thinking about them all day, there’s no way you could’ve gotten a reservation today. Even <em>you</em> don't have that much money or sway.”</p><p>“I may have made it a few weeks in advance.” In response to her confused look, he continued, “I know you like to spend your birthday alone, but I still wanted to celebrate with you, so I booked our table two months ago.”</p><p>Two months ago? Of course he would. He would’ve seen on the syllabus that they had a presentation today— two days before her birthday, and one that required them to wear business attire, and figured it was the perfect way to spring it on her the day of so she couldn’t say no. Not that she’d want to, she was eager to go to the restaurant but the further in advance he told her things, the more likely she was to talk herself out of them. Damn him for knowing her so well. Still, she wasn’t going to surrender this easily. She leaned back, crossing her arms, staying silent.</p><p>“Come on Nazyalensky, we’ve got the best table in the place and for afterwards, I was thinking we could have a movie night. You know you want to say yes.” </p><p>She shrugged noncommittally, “maybe.” </p><p>“I’ll take that as a yes.”</p><p>“Whatever suits you best, Lantsov. Now hurry up, we only have this room for another 90 minutes.”</p><p>They got to work revising for one of their other shared classes, and before they knew it, they were greeted by a knock on the door. </p><p>“Occupied” Zoya hissed in frustration as Nikolai mumbled, “come in,” neither bothering to look up from their work until the visitor cleared their throat. </p><p>“Kirigin!” Nikolai beamed, his smile a little too big to be genuine, but Kirigin wouldn’t know that. Zoya peeked at Nikolai’s watch as he got up, they only had 10 minutes left.</p><p>“I was wondering if you would let me study here until you’re done? I have the room right after, but all the tables around here are taken.” </p><p>Nikolai looked to Zoya for and only then did Kirigin seem to notice her presence in the room. </p><p>“We were actually just leaving,” Zoya said hurriedly rising from her chair before Kirigin could start falling over himself to compliment her.</p><p>“Oh, leaving so early?”</p><p>“Yes,” Nikolai responded, moving closer to her so that he could sling an arm over her shoulders. “We’re actually heading out for Zoya’s birthday dinner.” Kirigin opened his mouth, oh no. This was her queue to leave.</p><p>“I’m going to get some water before we go,” she announced, ignoring Nikolai’s imploring look in her direction, telling her not to leave him alone with Kirigin. Whoops. </p><p>As she made her way back to the room, water bottle full, she heard something that made her freeze before she could walk in. </p><p>“So… are you and Zoya dating then?” </p><p>“Zoya and I?” Nikolai sounded flabbergasted. “Nazyalensky and I? No, we’re just friends.”</p><p><em>‘Just friends.’</em> Zoya thought. What was that that supposed to mean? She felt the sharp sting of hurt in her chest. She had been foolish to think that Nikolai saw her as something more than an ordinary friend. Not that she wanted him to. But still, an unnamed emotion had dug its claws into her chest and refused to leave her mind. What did he mean by that?</p><p>She stepped into the doorway, acting like she’d overheard nothing. Nikolai grinned at the sight of her, his smile reaching his eyes. He picked up her coat and bag, sauntering over to her. Waving a quick goodbye to Kirigin, Nikolai exited the room, waiting until they were in the elevator alone to talk to her. </p><p>“Is everything alright?” he asked quietly, as if sensing that something was off. </p><p>“Everything is fine, Nikolai.”</p><p>“You seem mad.” His eyes were full of concern, playful affection, and something else, something more biting that she couldn’t bear to face.</p><p>She turned away, “I’m not mad, why would I be mad?” Was this the concern you showed to someone you were <em> just friends </em> with? Knowing Nikolai, it probably was, but he was never this kind unless he wanted something from you. For once in her life, she didn’t seem to be the one by his side, rather the one under the crosshairs, completely blindsided. What did he want? She knew she shouldn’t be upset, Nikolai had never claimed to see her as anything more than a friend, and she had never asked for— never wanted more. Until now. </p><p>“Zoya?” The concern in his voice was near palpable, the warmth of his hand on her skin pulsed through her. She couldn’t deal with this. </p><p><em>“Just friends, </em> Lantsov?” He froze, hand still on her shoulder. “I thought we were, how do you say it? <em> Best friends. </em>” She said, emphasizing the words as Nikolai would. </p><p>He let out a shaky breath as the elevator came to a stop before pressing a hand to his face, wiping all emotion but boyish charm away. “Why Zoya, you think that we’re <em>‘besties?’</em>”</p><p>“Disgusting. No.” She wrinkled her nose as Nikolai laughed, leading her out of the elevator. In her heart she knew he was right. They were friends, just friends. And that was all they would ever be.</p>
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    <em> Just friends. </em>
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